Dungeon Born: Divine Dungeon Series, Book 1

For eons, conquering dungeons has been the most efficient way to become a strong adventurer. Although not everything is as straightforward as it seems. Several questions have always plagued the minds of those who enter these mythical places of power: why are there so many monsters? Where do the amazing weaponry and heavy gold coins come from? Why does the very air fill with life-giving energies? Cal has all of the answers to these age-old questions, for a very simple reason. He is a Dungeon Heart.

Super Sales on Super Heroes

In a world full of super powers, Felix has a pretty crappy one. He has the ability to modify any item he owns. To upgrade anything. Sounds great on paper. Almost like a video game. Except that the amount of power it takes to actually change, modify, or upgrade anything worthwhile is beyond his abilities. With that in mind, Felix settled into a normal life. A normal job. His entire world changes when the city he lives in is taken over by a super villain. Becoming a country of one city. A city state.

Delvers LLC: Welcome to Ludus

Henry and Jason led normal lives in Seattle before they were abducted to another world. Their kidnapper, the vain, self-styled god Dolos, refuses to send them back unless they can accomplish an impossible task. Oddly, Dolos doesn't seem to care if they succeed or not. Luckily, Henry and Jason studied Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) on Earth. Unfortunately, a Japanese American EMT and a geeky IT programmer don't have many other useful skills on a sword-and-sorcery world like Ludus.

Into the Abyss: Demons of Astlan Series, Book 1

It turns out, the "Demon Weed" actually is a gateway drug! Who knew? Tom Perkinje certainly didn't. He had never smoked anything in his life, but as the new kid in town trying to make friends, he foolishly let his new buddy Reggie talk him into trying a joint that he'd picked up from a new dealer. Before he knew it, Tom was having a seriously bad trip; a total out-of-body experience where the world had dissolved around him.

Spells of Old: Ancient Dreams, Book 2

Having successfully driven off an assault and freed captives of Kelvanis, Sistina begins fortifying to defend those she cares about from further attacks. Yet with all her power within her halls, she cannot grant those under her protection true freedom. To truly bring hope to her love, Sistina must delve into who she once was, and bring forth every scrap of magic she has to become a shining beacon of hope. Sadly, Kelvanis' plans are only mildly impeded by her efforts up until now, and they will stop at nothing to bring their ends about.

The Slime Dungeon: The Slime Dungeon Chronicles, Book 1

Death came on swift wings. A soul, blessed by a goddess, falls to the land and enters his new life. He clings to a single memory, the defining moment of his previous life. Now he learns how to succeed in his new life as a new dungeon heart. To become the best dungeon he can be, he partners with the one existence all dungeons need: his bonded dungeon pixie.

The Builder's Sword: The Legendary Builder, Book 1

Arthur Curie never expected to wind up in Hell. At least, not because he found an ancient sword in a pawnshop. To make matters worse, Hell isn't as he thought. It's a desolate wasteland under siege by an all-consuming void known as the Darkness.

The Land: Founding: A LitRPG Saga: Chaos Seeds, Book 1

In The Land: Founding, the first volume of the award-winning Chaos Seeds saga, the Exiles and Eternals toy with the lives of unwitting humans. Gamers sign away their souls in unread contracts as they log online each day. One at a time, these people are stolen, mind and soul, into a world of magic and adventure that operates by the same laws as the game they worshiped at for years.

The Trapped Mind Project: Emerilia, Book 1

Austin Zane leaves behind his CEO position with RB Corp to play Dave, a half-dwarf in the virtual reality game Emerilia, trying to escape his life. What Dave doesn't know is that Earth as he knows it is really a virtual reality simulation and Emerilia is a world imbued with futuristic technologies to mimic early MMORPGs.

Beginnings: Adventures on Terra, Book 1

Armon Ellington is 19 year old kid that always felt out of place. He's an orphan, a gamer, and a role playing game geek. When he dies after a 72 hour gaming marathon, instead of going to an afterlife he's transported to a new world governed by rules that are eerily similar to the RPG games he loves. On this new world, Terra, he can be anything he wants, a warrior, mage, or even a crafter. Only, Armon wants more than that, he also wants friends and family.

Video Game Plotline Tester: Dark Herbalist Series, Book 1

Would you be prepared to work for free? How would you like to bust your hump for a large corporation 60-plus hours a week without a wage or a single day off for the vague promise of some mysterious perks in the distant future? You'd refuse point blank, wouldn't you? But what if the job in question was playing a state-of-the-art fantasy MMORPG game? And what if this was the only thing you're really good at? Especially considering that your in-game partner is someone really special to you - and this person already lives a virtual life?

Gamer for Life: Alpha World, Book 1

Seamus is facing life in prison without parole. While doing his time, he's given an option by the Department of Justice and the biggest virtual game maker around, Mindblown Entertainment. If he will help them test long-term immersion, he will get the chance to play the latest game from Mindblown - Alpha World. All he has to do is sign away his legal rights and sign an NDA.

World Seed: Game Start: World Seed Series, Book 1

The year is 2245, and the world has undergone explosive growth in multiple industries. The age of Virtual Reality came long ago, opening up new fields for people to enjoy and seek employment. There were even those that chose to sacrifice their physical bodies, becoming digital existences that lived within Internet communities. But with the age of VR, everyone still dreamed of that next step, the next level of adventure.

Survival Quest: Way of the Shaman Series # 1

Barliona: a virtual world jam-packed with monsters, battles - and, predictably, players. Millions of them come to Barliona, looking forward to the things they can't get in real life: elves and magic, dragons and princesses, and unforgettable combat. The game has become so popular that players now choose to spend months online without returning home. In Barliona, anything goes: You can assault fellow players, level up, become a mythical hero, a wizard, or a legendary thief.

Soulstone: Awakening: A LitRPG Novel: World of Ruul, Volume 1

Aaron Hope plays video games, like a lot, just not professionally. When he entered the EpiX! Games! PVP World Championship on a lark, this college senior never expected to make it to the final round, nor to get drugged and shoved into the alpha test for World of Ruul. The premise for this virtual reality MMO is simple. Find all eight treasures scattered throughout the world before the maelstrom's forces devour everything in sight. The only catch? You can't log off, and if you die...well, let's just say what happens in the game doesn't stay in the game.

Awaken Online: Catharsis

Jason logs into Awaken Online fed-up with reality. He's in desperate need of an escape, and this game is his ticket to finally feeling the type of power and freedom that are so sorely lacking in his real life. Awaken Online is a brand new virtual reality game that just hit the market, promising an unprecedented level of immersion. Yet Jason quickly finds himself pushed down a path he didn't expect. In this game, he isn't the hero. There are no damsels to save. There are no bad guys to vanquish.

Ancient Ruins: Ancient Dreams, Book 1

Sistina awakened after millennia of dormancy, her memories in tatters and born anew. Residing in the ruins of an ancient city, she finds herself drawn into a war between two elven nations and the slaver kingdom of Kelvanis when she rescues a princess from slavery. With her domain containing hints of forgotten knowledge, Sistina becomes a dungeon, stronghold, and source of hope all at once. And perhaps, just perhaps, she could finally find love in her new life.

Ascend Online: Ascend Online, Book 1

Diving into a revolutionary new video game, Marcus and his friends escape a stagnant society, entering into a world that defies their wildest imaginations. But from the moment that he logs in, Marcus finds himself separated from his friends and thrown into a remote village under attack by a horde of goblins. Forced into battle, Marcus rallies the beleaguered villagers and, with their help, manages to drive off the invading creatures. With the village in ruins and their supplies spoiled, the villagers turn to Marcus for help in rebuilding the village.

Nightlord: Sunset

Eric didn't ask to be a vampire. In fact he didn't even believe in them. Biting your own tongue with your fangs does a lot of convincing. Even so, being a part-time undead isn't as easy as you might think. It can let you hold down a day job, true, but sometimes the night "life" can be more than a little difficult, what with those bloodthirsty urges and predatory instincts kicking in.

Hero of Thera

Be a hero in the ultimate game. Are you a top-rated gamer? Then you might have the skills to play the Game...where players are sponsored by actual demon lords, gods and goddesses, or Lovecraftian nightmares. Enter Thera, a real kingdom at the crossroads of many other worlds, but with all the augmented-reality interfaces, character progression, and game mechanics that players know and love.

Eden's Gate: The Reborn: A LitRPG Adventure, Book 1

When Gunnar Long is transported into the first fully-immersive virtual MMORPG, he finds himself in a new world filled with magic, mystery, and adventure. No more 9-to-5 job. No more studio apartment. No more reality TV. Finally, he's in a place where he can call home, a place with people he can call friends. But as more people want to trade their real world lives to get inside Eden's Gate, the government of the outside world wants the "game" shut down at all costs.

Sufficiently Advanced Magic: Arcane Ascension, Book 1

Five years ago Corin Cadence's brother entered the Serpent Spire - a colossal tower with ever-shifting rooms, traps, and monsters. Those who survive the spire's trials return home with an attunement: a mark granting the bearer magical powers. According to legend, those few who reach the top of the tower will be granted a boon by the spire's goddess. He never returned. Now it's Corin's turn. He's headed to the top floor, on a mission to meet the goddess.

Challenge: Unbound Deathlord, Book 1

When virtual reality becomes real enough that people feel as if they're being transported to another world, Valia Online arrives. A man running from his past joins the game to forget it all. Calling himself Jack Thorn, he chooses an undead race, Deathlord. A mage by choice, and a swordsman by necessity, he soon finds out that he'll need to use much more than magic and steel to survive; strategy, creativity, and carefully chosen words can often accomplish what simple attacks can't.

AlterWorld: Play to Live, Book 1

A new pandemic - the perma effect - has taken over Earth of the near future. Whenever you play your favorite online game, beware: your mind might merge with the virtual world and dump its comatose host. Woe be to those stuck forever in Tetris! But some unfortunates - the handicapped and the terminally ill, shell-shocked army vets, wronged crime victims and other society misfits - choose to flee real life willingly, escaping to the limitless world of online sword and sorcery MMORPGs.

Publisher's Summary

To become a Dark Lord is no easy thing. The simple ambition to hold dominion over the world and bend all to your will sounds straightforward, but it's not. There are armies to raise, fortresses to build, heroes to defeat, and battles to be fought. After many spectacular failures, Evil decided to lend more than inspiration to these would-be tyrants. He wrote an easy-to-follow Dark Lord's Handbook. And yet the next Dark Lord that came along screwed up like all the others. It had been hundreds of years, and the Handbook was lost in the annals of time, along with all that was mythic and exciting in the world. Then one day, a randy dragon had a chance encounter. Nine months later a Dark Lord was born. In time, the Handbook found its way to this new contender: Morden.

Very disappointingIt sets itself up as a tongue in cheek look at the whole fantasy 'hero vs villain' thing, but quicky loses the plot.

The titular Dark Lord in training doesnt have much of the charisma or eccentricities you'd expect of someone going into the world domination buisiness. In fact he doesnt seem to make very many decisions on his own at all, spending most of his time being pushed around by plot devices rather than any motivation of his own.The bloodthirsty hero is a joke that sorely needed a punchlineMuch of the supporting cast seem to be irrelevant to the plot completely, Chancellor Penbury in particular didnt seem to do much of anything for the amount of time the story wastes on him.

Also, they travel east to discover "yellow orcs with slanty eyes"Really? For shame Paul Dale

Though this is far from the worst Fantasy I've ever read (Talking to you Ben Hale), I would not suggest this book to others. Instead, try Pratchett and Gaiman's "Good Omens"

I thought this would be a predictable rip off of similar amusing fantasy novels. But it wasn't at all. A delightfully amusing diversion. The story of Morden, who's career choice is being a dark lord. Made me laugh and kept me thoroughly entertained.

What other book might you compare The Dark Lord's Handbook to, and why?

Terry Pratchet....

Have you listened to any of Gildart Jackson’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Yes I have...he does comedic narration very well. Good array of charachters

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Cant say that with out giving the story away

Any additional comments?

Well worth a credit. Good story and good narration and great entertainment value. There is a second book which I hope audible brings out.

After adding Gildart Jackson to my favourite narrators I was recommended The Dark Lord's Handbook by Audible and really enjoyed it. The characters and story are well crafted and I hope this story continues. A must read for any fantasy fan.

Every hero has a beginning, but what about the villians? If it weren't for villains there would be no heroes, and that's where this story begins. Dale was able to craft a humorous novel about becoming a Dark Lord that made sense. The handbook spoke to the Dark Lord in-training of getting caught up in monologue while a hero is present, or putting all your power and energy into a single magical item just to lose it (as if it personally knew Sauron itself).

Most of the advice given by the handbook are phrases you may already be familiar with, but with a twist.Ex: "Absolute power corrupts absolutely, but isn't that the point?"

This novel is certainly not for everyone, but if you play Dungeons & Dragons and looking for a guide to creating your next star villain then this is not a bad choice.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Kulain

12/01/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Started out good but turned into a drag"

Would you try another book from Paul Dale and/or Gildart Jackson?

No, this felt like a cringe worthy attempt at a disc world novel.

What could Paul Dale have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Learn to actually develop characters instead of just talking about how they are suppose to be, and possible add some women who are annoying as hell and actually have more than 1 dimension of being evil/contrary/hot. Also... maybe come up with a more original name for the dragon than the one right out of World of Warcraft? Come on! He even mentions the Black Dragonflight WTF?

What didn’t you like about Gildart Jackson’s performance?

Spoke way too slowly and the voice acting as lady deathwing was unbearable, also the accents changed randomly so you can't tell who he is suppose to be.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Dark Lord's Handbook?

The entire middle section about a pointless voyage and a ridiculous war.

9 of 11 people found this review helpful

Stewat L. Bobbett

30/07/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"More audiobooks by Paul Dale, please."

It was a fun book and the narrator did a wonderful job with his performance. I am restlessly waiting for the next audiobooks in this series. I hope that I don't have to wait much longer.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Aaron

CLEVELAND, OH, United States

29/07/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Interesting story, but odd narration"

I usually enjoy a story which does not have a clearly defined antagonist and protagonist. This story was no exception. The idea of a handbook for how to be evil was very tongue in cheek and a great device.

The narrator had an odd cadence in the way he read. His character voices were good and varied to give each character their own life. The way he read the story kept me from becoming too immersed. It almost sounded like he was reading the story as he was writing it. There were elements where that type of narration was perfect, but it was very strange when narrating exposition and dialogue between most of the characters. I think I would have enjoyed the story much more if I had read a hard copy.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

J

Spanga, Sweden

02/08/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Fantastic!"

I absolutely loved mr Dale's extremely dry and silly humour, it is much like listening to the dialogue of the Black Adder. Using every single fantasy cliche there is and twisting them slightly he manages an enormously entertaining book - and I am eagerly awaiting the two next books of the series as Audible books.

Pretty please?

And much of the enjoyment is thanks to the narrator: great voices and humorous timing. Absolutely great!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

zachary

09/03/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Not a book about a villain"

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

the story could have been about a villain being a villain. Instead you get a main character brood like a 13 year old boy and do nothing, want nothing, and attempt to work toward nothing. as the book goes on the main character does less and less and the story shifts away from him more and more until it is about other characters who also do absolutely nothing.

a villain should want or need something and sacrafice things in order to achive that goal, making them a villain. a character sacrifices friendship when he betrays his freind, sacrifices his humanity when he becomes undead... our character nighther wants anything particularly nor sacrifices anything to achive his not existent goals.

he feels like he would like to be a dark lord... poof a magic book and an army find him and tell him he is a dark lord! he has no power or intelligence and gets into trouble, POOF. turns out he is a dragon (mind you he doesn't do anything as a dragon, just sort of hangs out and people run away).

this is a book about things happening to people and then those people waiting for something eles to happen.

hell no characters make any decisions the entire book. they are just swept up in events that happen to them without even seeming register that they are happening

the central conceit, that there is a book that teaches dark lords how to do there job, is quirky and slightly humorous... but besides reading that handbook our character does nothing. there are lengthy chapters of the character reading about how a dark lord might gather power about him..... does our main character apply this knowledge? do we see him take initiative or do we get to watch him establish his strength? no. are these passages entertaining? not really, unless endless references to the lord of the rings is entertaining to you.

there is no mystery, no suspense, no action, no character development.

Give the story a villain, make that villain interesting and have him aggressively pursue his goals, do anything at all with the handbook premise besides wink at the audience, have something happen or someone make a decision at some point.

Has The Dark Lord's Handbook turned you off from other books in this genre?

HELL YES. never touching this kind of trite again.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

used more than 3 voices for the characters. every ork sounded like an old man, every woman sounded like a British noble and the main character was the narrators voice being flat.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

the premise has potential but is squandered unsalvagably

Any additional comments?

save your money: synopsis: there is a book that teaches someone how to be a dark lord, the main character reads it and accomplishes nothing else. there is a stilted attempt to make the morgage crisis of the 2000s a valid plot point in a fantasy setting and besides being vaguely clever is pointless and dull. there good job you have saved yourself hours.

6 of 9 people found this review helpful

Jens

11/10/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Quirky"

I enjoyed it, especially when the book took a short break to talk about economy

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Ariel

29/07/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Hilarious!"

This story actually made me snort a few times at work! I must for anyone who enjoys subtle comedy.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Cody Stayton

14/09/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"a great book"

a great book with many plot twists and turns. had me guessing the whole time

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Neal

Wisconsin

23/07/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Enjoyable"

Great story, narration perfect, ending ok, but coulda been fleshed out a bit more. Overall time well spent.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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